Method for fixing a decorative member on a vamp of a shoe in a three dimensional manner

ABSTRACT

A method for fixing a decorative member on a vamp of a shoe in a three dimensional manner includes: a step of pressing which includes: preparing a sole mould filled with a semi-cured sole, and a decorative-member mould filled with a semi-cured decorative member, pushing the decorative-member mould against the vamp with the semi-cured decorative members and the semi-cured sole pressed against the bottom surface; and a step of heating which includes: heating the shoe to melt the semi-cured sole and decorative members; the decorative members and the sole will be fully cured.

BACKGROUND Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a vamp of a shoe, and more particularlyto a method for fixing a decorative member on a vamp of a shoe in athree dimensional manner.

Related Prior Art

Shoes are indispensable to out daily life. Among them, there is a kindof shoe whose vamp and liner are both made of cloth, which makes thewearer's feet feel more comfortable as compared to other shoes.

Please refer to FIG. 1, the shoe made of cloth mentioned above is madeby a method comprising the following steps: 1) placing a non-formed vamp10 on a flat surface, wherein the vamp 10 includes an upper surface 11,a lateral surface 12 and a bottom surface 13, pressing, by a mould A, adecorative member 14 onto the outer layer; 2) inserting a shoe last intothe vamp to shape the non-formed vamp 10 into a desired form; 3) heatingthe vamp 10 which has been inserted with the shoe last, when temperaturereaches 60-120° C., TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) material inside thevamp 10 is cured, and then is solidified into a finished vamp in theshape of the shoe last after the TPU material cools off; 4) connecting asole to the finished vamp to form a shoe.

It is to be noted that, in the step 1 as shown in FIG. 1, the vamp 10has a very limited area for pressing since it is formed on a flatsurface, and a three dimensional vamp 10 includes the upper surface 11and the lateral surface 12. FIG. 1 shows that the mould A is pressingagainst the upper surface 11, wherein the lateral surface 12 is deformedwhile being pressed. Therefore, it is impossible to press a decorativemember 14 on the lateral surface 12 while pressing the upper surface 11with the mould A, and it has to wait until the pressing of thedecorative member 14 onto the upper surface 11 is completed, and thelateral surface 12 is flattened, to pressing the decorative member 14 onthe lateral surface 12.

With this method, the decorative members 14 cannot be pressed at onesitting, which complicates the procedures for pressing the decorativemembers 14. Besides, pressing the decorative member 14 which has beenformed and cooled off directly onto the vamp 10 makes it difficult forthe decorative member 14 to fit well against the vamp 10, and as aresult, the decorative member 14 is more likely to falling off.

The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate theafore-described disadvantages.

SUMMARY

One objective of the present invention is to provide a method for fixinga decorative member on a vamp of a shoe in a three dimensional manner,wherein the step of pressing decorative members allows the decorativemembers to be simultaneously pressed onto the upper surface and thelateral surface of the vamp, which substantially reducing shoemanufacturing time.

To achieve the above objective, a method for fixing a decorative memberon a vamp of a shoe in a three dimensional manner in accordance with thepresent invention is provided, wherein the vamp includes an uppersurface, a lateral surface and a bottom surface, and the methodcomprises:

a step of pressing including: preparing a sole mould and adecorative-member mould, wherein the sole mould includes a sole mouldcavity and a first abutting surface, the decorative-member mouldincludes a decorative-member mould cavity and a second abutting surface,filling the sole mould with a semi-cured sole, filling thedecorative-member mould with a semi-cured decorative member, pushing thedecorative-member mould against the upper surface or the lateral surfaceof the vamp, with the second abutting surface pressing against the uppersurface or the lateral surface to attach the semi-cured decorativemembers to the upper surface or the lateral surface; pushing the solemould against the bottom surface with the first abutting surfacepressing against the bottom surface to attach the semi-cured sole to thebottom surface; and

a step of heating including: heating the vamp to melt the semi-curedsole and decorative members; the decorative members and the sole arecured when heated to a predetermined temperature.

Preferably, the semi-cured sole and the decorative member are made of amaterial selected from a group consisting of rigid polyurethane, castingand polyurethane.

Preferably, the sole mould and the decorative-member mould are made of amaterial selected from a group consisting of polyurethane, thermoplasticpolyurethane and silicon.

Preferably, the sole mould and the decorative-member mould are soft orrigid moulds.

Preferably, in the step of heating, the semi-cured sole and decorativemembers are heated to 30-80° C. when they are heated to a melted state.

Preferably, the predetermined temperature is 60-120° C.

These together with other objects of the invention, along with thevarious features of novelty which characterize the invention, arepointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming apart of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention,its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses,reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptivematter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of theinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view illustrating the conventional methodfor making a vamp;

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view showing the step of pressing of themethod for fixing the decorative member on the vamp in a threedimensional manner in accordance with a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is an illustrative view showing the step of heating of the methodfor fixing the decorative member on the vamp in a three dimensionalmanner in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of the method for fixing the decorativemember on the vamp in a three dimensional manner in accordance with thepreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an illustrative view showing the decorative members inaccordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a photograph showing the decorative members in accordance withthe preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a flow chart view showing the showing the method for fixingthe decorative member on the vamp in a three dimensional manner inaccordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will be clearer from the following descriptionwhen viewed together with the accompanying drawings, which show, forpurpose of illustrations only, the preferred embodiment in accordancewith the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 2-7, a shoe made by the method for fixing adecorative member 40 on a vamp 12 in a three dimensional manner inaccordance with the preferred embodiment of the present inventioncomprises: the vamp 20, a sole 30 and the decorative member 40.

The vamp 20 includes an upper surface 21, a lateral surface 22 connectedto the upper surface 21, and a bottom surface 23. The upper surface 21,the lateral surface 22 and the bottom surface 23 define a 3 dimensionalshape of a shoe.

The sole 30 is heated by a sole mould 31 and then connected to thebottom surface 23 of the vamp 20. The sole mould 31 includes a solemould cavity 311 for accommodation of the sole 30, and a first abuttingsurface 312 for abutting against the bottom surface 23.

The decorative member 40 is heated and connected to the upper surface 21or/and the lateral surface 22 of the vamp 20 by a decorative-membermould 41. The decorative-member mould 41 includes a decorative-membermould cavity 411 for accommodation of the decorative member 40, and asecond abutting surface 412 for abutting against the upper surface 21and the lateral surface 22 of the vamp 20.

Referring to FIGS. 2-7 again, the method for fixing the decorativemember 40 on the vamp 12 in a 3 dimensional manner in accordance withthe preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises thefollowing steps:

a step 1 of pressing, as shown in FIG. 2: preparing the sole mould 31and a plurality of decorative-member moulds 41, there are threedecorative-member moulds 41 in this embodiment, the sole mould 31 isfilled with a semi-cured sole 30, each of the decorative-member moulds41 is filled with a semi-cured decorative member 40, the semi-cured sole30 and the decorative members 40 are made of RPU (rigid polyurethane),CPU (casting polyurethane) or PU (polyurethane); pushing the threedecorative-member moulds 41 against the upper surface 21 and the lateralsurface 22 of the vamp 20, respectively, with the second abuttingsurface 412 of each of the decorative-member moulds 41 tightly pressingagainst the upper surface 21 and the lateral surface 22 to make thesemi-cured decorative members 40 attached to the upper surface 21 andthe lateral surface 22; pushing the sole mould 31 against the bottomsurface 23 with the first abutting surface 312 tightly pressing againstthe bottom surface 23 to make the semi-cured sole 30 attached to thebottom surface 23. In this embodiment, the sole mould 31 and the threedecorative-member moulds 41 can be soft or rigid moulds and are made ofPU, TPU or silicon;

a step 2 of heating, as shown in FIG. 3: heating the vamp 20 to melt thesemi-cured sole 30 and decorative members 40; the decorative members 40inside the decorative-member moulds 41 and the sole 30 inside the solemould 31 will be fully cured when heated to a predetermined temperature,so that the decorative members 40 on the upper surface 21 and thelateral surface 22 become patterns or LOGO, and the sole 30 attached tothe bottom surface 23 becomes outsole or heel.

The predetermined temperature is 60-120° C., and the semi-cured sole 30and decorative members 40 are heated to 30-80° C. when they are heatedto a melted state.

It is to be noted that the method for fixing the decorative member onthe vamp in a 3 dimensional manner in accordance with the presentinvention allows the decorative members 40 and the vamp 20 to be formedin the same step. In the step 1 of pressing, a plurality of decorativemembers 40 can be simultaneously formed on the upper surface 21 and thelateral surface 22, and the sole 30 can also be formed on the bottomsurface 23 simultaneously with the decorative members 40. Not only thedecorative members 40 can be formed in the same step, but also the sole30 can be formed in the same step along with the decorative members 40.Or, the sole 30 can also be formed in a separate step from thedecorative members 40, so that the step for pressing the decorativemembers 40 and the step for connecting the sole 30 are simplified.

Referring then to FIGS. 5 and 6, since the method for forming thedecorative members 40 is different from the conventional art, thedecorative members 40 can be integrally formed with the vamp 20 bystarting from the upper surface 21 to the lateral surface 22, whichmakes the decorative members 40 more variable in shapes and styles thanconventional decorative members.

With the method for fixing the decorative member on the vamp in a 3dimensional manner in accordance with the present invention, thedecorative members 40 and the sole 30 can be formed on the upper surface21, the lateral surface 22 and the bottom surface 23 of the vamp 20simultaneously in the same step, which simplifies the steps for formingthe decorative members 40 and the sole 30, consequently substantiallyreducing the necessary time for manufacturing shoes.

While we have shown and described various embodiments in accordance withthe present invention, it is clear to those skilled in the art thatfurther embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of thepresent invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for fixing a decorative member on a vampof a shoe in a three dimensional manner, the vamp including an uppersurface, a lateral surface and a bottom surface, the method comprising:a step of pressing including: preparing a sole mould and adecorative-member mould, wherein the sole mould includes a sole mouldcavity and a first abutting surface, the decorative-member mouldincludes a decorative-member mould cavity and a second abutting surface,filling the sole mould with a semi-cured sole, filling thedecorative-member mould with a semi-cured decorative member, pushing thedecorative-member mould against the upper surface or the lateral surfaceof the vamp, with the second abutting surface pressing against the uppersurface or the lateral surface to attach the semi-cured decorativemembers to the upper surface or the lateral surface; pushing the solemould against the bottom surface with the first abutting surfacepressing against the bottom surface to attach the semi-cured sole to thebottom surface; and a step of heating including: heating the vamp tomelt the semi-cured sole and decorative members; the decorative membersand the sole are cured when heated to a predetermined temperature. 2.The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the semi-cured sole and thedecorative member are made of a material selected from a groupconsisting of rigid polyurethane, casting and polyurethane.
 3. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sole mould and thedecorative-member mould are made of a material selected from a groupconsisting of polyurethane, thermoplastic polyurethane and silicon. 4.The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sole mould and thedecorative-member mould are soft or rigid moulds.
 5. The method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein in the step of heating, the semi-cured soleand decorative members are heated to 30-80° C. when they are heated to amelted state.
 6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein thepredetermined temperature is 60-120° C.